


Odd Parents

by historicallyredacted (lockandkey)



Series: Odd Coupled [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Oneshot, but reading that first isn't really required, set vaguely in the far off distant future of The Odd Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 20:10:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17669249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lockandkey/pseuds/historicallyredacted
Summary: Octavian finds a puppy.





	Odd Parents

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is essentially set in the same universe as my other story The Odd Couple, but far off in the future. I don't really do unhappy endings in stories (...usually) but rest assured this is just sort of a... snippet of their far more complicated lives.  
> I can't really imagine them ever having real human children, so. this came about in my brain

 

 Octavian had been having a fine day – not good, not bad; just fine. He’d had senate business in Seattle and was to fly home later the same day. It was snowing, which they didn’t have much of in New Rome, so it was a welcome change. He could have stayed longer, of course, but it wasn’t like he wanted to go site seeing. (Moreover, he may have missed his husband, but that was neither here nor there.)  
It was a perfectly fine day; so, really, Octavian should have realized something would go very much astray.  
 As he walked out of new Demigod outlet facility that was being in part funded by the Amazons, Octavian took no notice of the alleyway between buildings until he heard a noise. Octavian paused, and moved one hand towards a concealed dagger below his long coat. A small cardboard box near a dumpster rattled, and he heard the same noise once again. He took a step forward, expecting either an alley cat or a rat, or possibly a rogue _karpoi_ ; nothing very threatening, but being overly cautious came with being an adult demigod.  
  
It was a dog. Well, it was a very young dog. ( ‘ _A puppy, if you will_ ,’ an unhelpfully playful voice said in the back of Octavian’s mind that sounded a lot like his husband. Maybe he did need to take longer business trips.)  
The pup was keening, until it saw Octavian looking suspiciously at it, at which point it began to excitedly wag. It had shades of brown, black, grey, taupe. It was… _exceptionally_ fluffy. It was more fur than dog.  
  
It was abandoned, Octavian realized, looking around for anyone in view. Instead, he noticed a small note on the side of the cardboard box.  
  
‘ **Please take me**.’ It didn’t look like it had been written by an adult.  
  
Octavian rolled his eyes, hushed the dog, and began to walk away. He had an Uber to catch, and then a flight back to San Francisco. Someone else would get it, and it was well enough insulated that the snow shouldn’t bother it for a while. Snow in Seattle rarely lasted very long. Dogs were trouble, they were loud, they got hair on everything. They were needy, filthy, fluffy, loyal, and-  
  
Ten minutes later Octavian sat in the Uber, staring down at the pup curled up in his lap. What just happened? The driver didn’t seem to care, but there was no way Octavian could get on an airplane with this dog. It had no shots, no supplies, no collar, no nothing.  
  
“Are you checking any baggage today?” A perky dark-haired woman asked at the terminal, to which Octavian looked down at the dog hooked under his arm. The pup was looking around, seeming nervous at the sheer amount of people in the airport.  
  
“…Just this.”  
  
A half hour later found Octavian very confusedly boarding his flight, still holding the dog. It was as if no one noticed it existed. The bag check woman seemed confused by his response. He walked past security, to which the pup barked at and no heads turned. As Octavian took his seat (Business class) he watched as people, children, infants, all moved past him; no one so much as glanced at the (extremely cute) puppy sitting in Octavian’s lap.  
  
“Is this my doing, or yours?” Octavian asked the dog, which simply cocked an ear at him. It wasn’t uncommon for demigod related items to go unnoticed in circumstances like these. Octavian regularly carried aboard weapons of all sorts, just in case, and not even a metal detector would take offense. Leo had carried on his Festus suitcase before, so Octavian supposed if no one noticed that then maybe they wouldn’t notice this dog.

  
Or maybe, the dog itself was the cause. It had been very close to a new grouping of demigods, and monsters were always going to be drawn to such places – maybe the dog was secretly something in disguise, attempting to find its way free from scrutiny into the midst of demigods?  
Then again, Octavian wasn’t a push over, he’d had no visions or prophecies warning of puppies.  
  
They spent nearly 3 hours flying back to his home city, most of the time the dog slept curled up into a fluffy ball. Briefly, it tried to chew on its on tail, followed by Octavian’s fingers.  
  
“You’re not cute, I could kill you and feel nothing.” Octavian glowered down at it. The portly old business man in the seat adjacent to Octavian’s sent him a concerned look.  
  
An hour later, Octavian was walking into his own villa in New Rome, on the hillside overlooking the rest of the city. Placing the dog onto the ground in the glassed over atrium, Octavian decided he needed a good deal of alcohol and made for the kitchen.  It trotted after him as quickly as possible, with a small ruff of surprise. Having grabbed the entire bottle of wine he had on hand, Octavian went to his study - the canine followed, flopped to the floor, and immediately started to chew on the leg of his couch.  
Eventually, it began to whine. Octavian went back to the kitchen, grabbed a bowl, filled it with water, and placed it in front of the pup. It eagerly began to drink, getting water sloshed all over the floor and its own face. Octavian paused before he made his _third_ trip to the kitchen, and then tossed the dog a few scraps of pork and chicken.  
  
Octavian realized he was beginning to smile, which was concerning. Octavian didn’t like dogs. Octavian didn’t like cats. Octavian barely tolerated people on a good day, and that was after years of practice and a therapist that wasn't awful.  
When had he gotten so soft?  
  
The front door opened with a jingle of keys. Ah, yes, that’s when. Or, at least why.   
  
“I see a briefcase. You home?” Leo called into the house. “I’m filthy and disgusting, you’re not supposed to be home yet.”  
  
“Study,” Octavian called back with a sigh, pinching his nose. How the hell would he explain this? Obviously Leo would want to keep it. Well, he couldn’t fight him, could he. It was Leo’s fault, really.  
  
 Leo walked into the room, looked down, froze.  
  
“What the fuck is that?” Octavian looked up and opened his mouth. “Don’t you dare. I know it’s a dog. _Why_ dog. Why here? Did you… _buy_ a dog?” Leo looked incredulous, leaning down to inspect the dog like it was one of his machines.  
  
“No,” Octavian hissed, the very idea of it was ridiculous. “I …found it… in a box.”  
That was also the wrong thing to say.  Leo turned to his husband very slowly and Octavian watched as a puckish look bloomed over the other mans face.  
  
“…You found an orphaned floppy eared puppy dog, and were so overcome with emotion, that you brought it home in your coat pocket? _Tavy~_ ”  
  
“Every time you use that nickname it’s like listening to someone scratch a chalkboard – no, I wasn’t…overcome…with emotion…It was just…” Octavian frowned, and looked back at the dog, which was looking at Leo with interest. Probably because Leo was wearing his mechanic clothes and was covered in soot and oil. He must have smelled interesting, quite different than anything else it had experienced.  
  
Leo sat down on the arm of the chair next to Octavian.  
“Sure, so, let’s recap: you were coming home, and some point between San Francisco international airport and your Uber, you saw a dog in a box. Then, you decided, the most _logical_ course of action was to grab said dog.”  
Octavian muttered something under his breath, and Leo leaned over against him, likely ruining his very expensive coat.  
“What was that?”  
  
“I said,” Octavian grit out, “it was ….in Seattle.”  
  
Leo’s eyes got big, before he burst out laughing, sliding off the chair and onto the ground. The puppy barked and came running over to bite at the cackling imp.  
“Oh my _gods_ , you took it on the fucking plane? Did you buy a carrier for it first, does it have an engraved collar yet? Is it named Precious?” Leo laughed until tiny puppy needle teeth got too deep into his skin, so he rolled over and grabbed up the dog to stop it.  
  
“Congrats daddy, she’s a girl.”  
  
“Please rephrase.”  
  
“… _Papi_.”  
  
“That’s worse,” Octavian said fondly, while Leo beamed at him from the ground, dog squirming in his hands. “You’re getting her dirty, go wash. Wash her while you’re at it.”  
  
“You could come with?” Leo grinned, “come on, it’ll be fun.”  
  
He’d never admit it, but sitting in the bath with his husband, watching the puppy run around and occasionally slip across tiles on the floor _was_ nice. Their bath was sunken, so she could run right up to the edge of the bath and bark, as Leo would play hide and seek by ducking under the water surface briefly. She even tried to swim out towards Octavian in a moment of small bravery.  
  
Later at night, the dog was dry and curled up between the two in bed.  
  
“So, is this an actual thing now?” Leo asked. “We just…. Have a dog now?”  
  
Octavian said nothing, just scratched the pups fur.  
  
“I don’t know anything about owning dogs, do you?”  
  
“Sort of,” Octavian admitted after a moment. “Had one growing up, but it belonged to my half siblings.”  
  
Leo hummed, rolling onto his side and looking the other man over. “We can’t give her more meat scraps, we’ll need to get food for her tomorrow morning. We’ll need to get supplies, and probably a book. And, she’ll need a name.”  
  
“I know,” Octavian leaned over to kiss him goodnight. “Her name is Macula.”  
  
“Oh my god, I love hate you so much right now. It's just too bad, being new parents, we can never have sex again.”  
  
-  
  
“Leo,” a voice called out, and both men glanced over to Hazel Levesque walking into the shop. “… Octavian. Morning.”  
  
“Getting Sir Hubert Mewsworth and his Lady Duchess Purrington their daily libations?” Leo hugged her in greeting, and Octavian gave a stiff nod as a hello.  
 After being together so long, most of Leo’s friends grudgingly stopped complaining about their relationship, but it was still often awkward. He may be over thirty now, but their early years in Camp Jupiter would forever scar their history. Still, they occasionally had dinner dates with the other couple, so things _had_ improved.   
Hazel and Frank owned two cats, wedding presents from Magnus and Alex; they were two large Maine Coons that barely tolerated anyone else besides Hazel and Frank. Leo would try to befriend the two felines every time they visited but would usually end up with slices along his fingers for his efforts.  
  
“Of course,” Hazel laughed, shaking her head. “What about you two, why are you guys here?”  
  
Here, was ‘ _Et Mollis Bellus_ ’, the only pet shop in New Rome. Owned and operated by an older legacy couple. They were expanding as the population increased; but for the time being it was small enough that anyone who had a pet in New Rome, knew everyone else who had a pet in New Rome.  
Octavian felt awkward standing in a place filled with pet food, chews, and squeaky toys. In his youth, he probably would have cut open a few of those squeaky toys, just to see how well they worked for his pseudo-haruspex. Now, he was married and had a dog.   
  
Leo pointed at Macula, under Octavian’s other arm. “We have a dog now. We’re dog people. Pet folks.”  
  
Hazel made a high-pitched noise, reaching out to scruff the pups face. “It’s so squishy.”  
  
“Hazel, meet Macula.” Leo announced with some amusement.  
  
Hazel snorted, “of course _you’d_ name your dog _Spot_ of all things.”  
  
“Yes. Yes, _I_ named her, that is something _I_ did. That is a name _I_ personally decided on,” Leo nodded repeatedly, shooting looks at Octavian and biting his lip while trying not to crack up. “I definitely wouldn’t have named her _Festia_.”  
  
Hazel looked at Octavian with some surprise, picking up on the _oh so subtle_ hinting, but said nothing. “Where did you get her?”  
  
“Seattle. You remember the summer camp thing they’re trying to start up there, Salmon Run or whatever. Hubby here went up there, busy bee senator man. Found her abandoned in a box. You know Octavian, bleeding heart. Sweetheart. Animal lover.”  
  
“Yes,” Hazel said very slowly, eyes big. “Those......Those…are terms I would use in description of Octavian.”  
  
 Leo fully started snickering, until they gained the attention of the storehand. Hazel said her goodbyes after a bit, buying her own cat food and toys, so Octavian and Leo were left by themselves in the store.  
They walked out with a few hundred dollars’ worth of puppy equipment.  
  
“Free my ass,” Leo huffed, carrying about five bags. Octavian carried one very light bag and had Macula on a very fancy leash in his other hand.  They also had signed up for obedience courses. “Free dog, poor little abandoned pooch. You should be glad I can afford your lavish lifestyle now with the new shop, babe.”  
  
Ignoring the ranting, Macula barked at a faun as they walked past. It was a good day.  
  
  
  
6 months down the line, Macula was already pushing past 60 pounds, and was becoming increasingly gigantic. She couldn’t fit on the bed any longer, she was practically already Leo’s weight and size (to which he argued _vehemently_.)  
Veterinarians gave her a clean bill of health, and she did exceptionally well in training courses.  
  
“What breed do you think she is?” Reyna asked curiously, her own metal hounds playing with Macula. Octavian had looked that very issue up, but had no definitive answers without doing DNA testing, which seemed a bit silly for a mutt.  
“She looks a bit like an Akita, but a bit like a mastiff too. Maybe some kind of shepherd. I feel as though I know what it is, but the name is escaping me. “Reyna tapped her fingers on her desk. Octavian felt much the same, but was still hard pressed to admit it.  
  
Flavius, another senate member, sighed deeply as he wished the two younger senators would stop bringing their dogs to work with them.  
  
“Something wrong?” Octavian asked coldly, eyes zeroing in on the man.  
  
He shook his head quickly. “Of course not.”  
  
“I thought as much.” Macula walked over to Octavian, smacking Flavius with her tail as she went by. "Good girl."  
  
  
  
A year down the line Macula had out matched the weight of the heaviest English Mastiff on record. She outweighed Leo and Octavian. Combined.  
  
“You know, when you brought home a dog… I thought you meant a dog, not what is quite clearly a miniature horse,” Leo said, from the bath. Octavian stepped in, and then so did Macula. They had to upgrade their bath to fit the dog, because otherwise she would probably have sat on Leo and killed him.  
  
“You have an entire dragon in our garage,” Octavian pointed out, Leo rolled his eyes but relaxed none the less.  
  
“Remember when we were in the Sea of Monsters?”  
  
“No, can’t recall. When was that? Was it in any way significant?” Leo shoved him lightly but looked fondly at him.  
  
“Can you imagine what we would have thought seeing ourselves now, together…in a house we own… with a gigantic fucking dog nearing on making Clifford look like a big red bitch?”  
  
“I would have assumed I was going mad from sea sickness.”  
  
“Are you happy though?”  
  
Octavian thought back on his childhood, on his early teenage years - the struggles for power and for glory, the bloodshed, the battles. Then, he remembered a much younger Leo Valdez looking out over an ocean – to a small fluffy puppy sitting in a box all alone in the snow.  
  
“I am.” They leaned against one another in the bath, holding hands. It had been 14 years since Octavian started feeling like this. “…And I’ll kill anyone who threatens Macula or you.”  
  
“…I can’t believe I’m your soulmate… and you said the dogs name first.”

Macula got out of the bath and shook wet dog water everywhere.  
  
  
  
  
A few months later, Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson were visiting along with teenage Estelle Jackson-Blofis.  
  
“Is that a hellhound?” Percy looked oddly excited about the idea, but it was Estelle that barreled past him to envelope Macula in a hug. “Oh my god, this is the softest thing I’ve ever felt. I need five. Percy, I want five for my graduation present.”  
  
Annabeth looked surprised, before asking a question that Octavian really should have figured out much earlier.  
  
“Where did you get a Molossian Hound?”  
  
“A what?” Leo, Percy, and Estelle asked in tandem.  
  
“Roman dog breed, extinct.” Annabeth explained, crouching down to look over Macula. “I’ve seen records of them in our libraries…but I didn’t think any still existed. This is incredible. Where did you get her?”  
  
Octavian stared down at his puppy, who looked up at him with happy eyes and a wagging tail.  
  
“…From a cardboard box in Seattle.”  
  
  
  
  
  


  
  


**Author's Note:**

> ...Who left the dog though?


End file.
